DENVER, Colorado - AUGUST 07: US Marine Corps veteran Corporal Matt Foster shares a moment with Mick, a K9 he served with for eight months in Afghanistan, after the two were reunited at the Jeppesen Terminal at Denver International Airport on Thursday, August 07, 2014 in Denver, Colorado. The reunion was made possible by the American Humane Association and Mission K9 Rescue who are working together to bring military war dogs back to the US from combat and reconnect them with their former handlers.

DENVER, Colorado - AUGUST 07: US Marine Corps veteran Corporal Matt Foster pets Mick, a K9 he served with for eight months in Afghanistan, after he and the dog were reunited at the Jeppesen Terminal at Denver International Airport on Thursday, August 07, 2014 in Denver, Colorado. The reunion was made possible by the American Humane Association and Mission K9 Rescue who are working together to bring military war dogs back to the US from combat and reconnect them with their former handlers.

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Matt Foster served in Afghanistan with one of his best friends, Mick. But when Foster finished his tour and returned to Denver, he knew his friend might be left behind, abandoned without a real home.

Mick is a black Labrador and served as a contract working dog for the U.S. military.

After more than a year apart, Foster and Mick were reunited Thursday at Denver International Airport, thanks to a new partnership between American Humane Association and Mission K9 Rescue, which works to reconnect retired military dogs with their handlers.

“He was a brother. He kept us all emotionally and physically safe,” Foster said. “I wanted to bring him home and give him a good life because I owe him at least that much.”

Military dogs serve beside human soldiers when on patrol, sniffing for improvised explosive devices, keeping the men and women they work with safe. Each K-9 officer saves about 150 to 200 U.S. military lives during the span of their military career, the nonprofits said.

Foster and Mick are among the lucky ones.

Because the U.S. military still classifies the dogs as equipment, the four-legged soldiers are often left overseas — in shelters or taken in by the local community.

Mick, who is 7 years old and served four tours in Afghanistan, is one of dozens of dogs that the organizations hope to reunite with their handlers this year.

Foster, 23, put in his adoption papers for Mick and another dog he worked with about a year ago.

“We ate together, slept together, patrolled together,” he said.

Maurer said the organization has more than 1,000 e-mails in its inbox right now from soldiers, but also from members of the public, wanting to adopt these dogs.

“Every one of these handlers I’ve talked to has a piece missing when they come back,” Maurer said. “This is a part of the healing process. You can see it on his face right now.”

It is nearly impossible to track how many dogs are serving in the military at any given time because there’s no centralized record-keeping system, American Humane Association CEO Robin Ganzert said.

It is estimated that about 2,500 dogs have served in the War on Terror. Ganzert said 4,000 dogs served in Vietnam, and “none of them were allowed to come home.”

“Just because they have four legs and fur doesn’t mean they aren’t a veteran,” she said. “It is traumatic for the handlers. I think they both should have an opportunity to retire in dignity.”

AHA worked with other animal activist groups to get the U.S. Air Force to reclassify these dogs as something other than equipment.

“But those manuals haven’t changed yet,” Ganzert said.

Next, AHA wants the chasm closed between contract working dogs, owned by private companies, and military working dogs that are owned by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Once the military changes its manuals to reclassify the military dogs as something other than equipment, Ganzert says the next step is doing the same for dogs owned by private companies that are used for military service.

“We have to step up and say, ‘Let’s eliminate those differences,’ ” she said.

Kristen Leigh Painter was a former business reporter who focused on airlines and aerospace coverage. She joined The Post in September 2011 and departed for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in August 2014. She graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a master's in journalism after earning a bachelor's in history from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.

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